Growing up in Georgia, Young played various sports including football, basketball, and track and field, in addition to singing in school choirs and participating in school plays and dances. He was raised Baptist by strict parents, who didn't allow him to listen to hip hop music as a youth. However, Young cites his parents' methods as a foundation upon which he could build himself in character, especially growing up in the area that he was.

Young recorded his second mixtape, Royal Flush II, with producer CPK, and plans to work further with previous collaborators the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, No I.D. and Kanye West, as well as DJ Toomp, The Alchemist and Just Blaze.[7] Young released his third mixtape, Jack of All Trades, later in 2011, which announced the title of his debut studio album to be Hardway Musical.

As of August 2015, CyHi's album had yet to receive a release date. Frustrated with his situation and having been dropped from Def Jam Recordings, he released a diss track called "Elephant In The Room", aimed toward G.O.O.D. Music, its owner Kanye West, Pusha T and Teyana Taylor. On the track, he addresses his album delays and even threatens Kanye: "While you're in your little Lambo on Sunset, I'm riding with a gun next to me and it sounds like a little boy playing with a drum set / And, it holds a hundred rounds 'cause when you come around, niggas quick to gun you down." [13]

CyHi would later clarify that the track was not in fact a diss. Rather it was similar to the light-hearted 'insults' that Eminem would inflict on Dr. Dre.[14] An upcoming album to be titled "L.I.O.N." was announced amid this increase in media attention, still containing the G.O.O.D. Music imprint's logo, further indicating that CyHi was still with the label, and on good terms.[15]